The guy has no credit, thus likely no credit cards
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Obviously, theyâre all going to say their brand is the best and they stand behind it. Didnât you learn that car dealerships will say anything to make a sale in that hard knock life? 
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Wow, this thread is full of lots of should-woulda-couldas. Some good recommendations, but hard to sort through.
You need to get clarity on what heâs done and what he thinks still needs to be done to get the car driveable.
Then decide whether itâs worth working out a deal with him for that, or walking away. Yes, he will come after you later for the unpaid balance, but thatâs still delaying a payment that youâll have to pay anyway.
Keep us posted with specifics.
Because you are SURE to get a totally honest response⊠NOTâŠ
Although I was very young, I still recall accompanying my mother to the fishmongerâs shop every Friday. Invariably, my mother would ask, âIs it fresh?â, and just as invariably she would be assured that the fish was fresh. After a few instances of coming home with fish that was clearly not fresh, we stopped going to that shop.
Exactly!
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This is the best advice I have seen posted here in a long time. And of course, once you start viewing your car as an appliance, rather than a status symbol, suddenly a used Camry from the late 90âs to mid 2000âs becomes the best bang-for-the-buck for people who donât like economy cars. It may not impress your âfriendsâ or neighbors, but it will certainly get you to work every day, and cost very little to insure and maintain.
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The same statements carry over to salvage yard parts.
Ask the boneyard âIs that engine/trans/whatever good?â.
The answer will always be yes and we guarantee it.
And they say this about an engine/trans/whatever they have never seen in operation.
Really think the head of any dealership is going to spend one minute discussing this much less provide anything other than glowing reviews even if they did? Not gonna happen.
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Of course you think this is great advice because in goes with your thinking.
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Of Course the dealerships will have sales men its their job to talk up their own cars, but the owner or manager if you bother to meet them may give a personal offer, I know of one woman who got a personal offer from a manager and its has saved her a bundle. But taking a car back and spending over 4K to fix the same problem and returning the car back to the same shop which has had the same vehicle return X times is not the answer. Its time for the Scrapyard!
I was in your shoes when I was very young in 70âs Now! That is why I started to work on my own cars. I do everything now! Certified at ASE. But the saving is only covering Labor, parts still cost me. I wonder how shops are able to charge someone with an outstanding bill? Most shops I know would never do this?
As I understand things, the OPâs car is a Toyota Prius. Even though there are now more hybrids on the road, if it was my car, I would want a mechanic that really understands hybrid technology to give me a diagnosis. A friend of mine who lives 25 miles out of town has a Prius. She came to town one Saturday and when she was ready to leave, the Prius wouldnât start. She called me and asked if I would come and jump the battery which I agreed to do. On the way to help.her out, it dawned on me that I didnât know much about a hybrid and I might be in over my head. When I got to the car, I measured the voltage of the small 12 volt battery and it measured 8.4 volts. I tried jumping the battery from my Sienna with no luck. I then reasoned that since the Prius had just been driven 25 miles, the battery should be charged and either the battery was defective or the charging system had a problem. My friend suggested that we go to an auto parts store and buy a new battery. I said that if the problem was the charging system and not the battery, she would be spending money and still not have her Prius running. I convinced her to take my Sienna as she was anxious to get back home for her grandsonâs birthday party and have her Prius towed to the Toyota dealer. The problem did turn out to be the 12 volt battery. Since that time, I did read up on the Prius and found that the small 12 volt battery is charged from the high voltage battery through an inverter/converter system. I am reluctant to throw parts at something or tackle a repair on a machine where I donât understand how it functions.
Back in 1967, we needed a second car and I came across a 1961 Corvair at the Rambler dealer. When I listened to the engine, it sounded to me as though it needed a valve job. I talked the dealer down from $695 to $450. I knew an independent mechanic that worked on Corvairs and could do a valve job at a reasonable price. When I suggested to the Rambler dealer about fixing the engine, he said his mechanics wouldnât work on a Corvair. His mechanics hadnât had any experience with these cars. After I bought the car, we took the Corvair when we went out for dinner. A thunderstorm followed by a heavy downpour occured while we were dining out. I didnât think we would make it home as the Corvair was running so badly. In the middle of the night, I woke up and it dawned on me that rainy weather doesnât affect valves. I replaced the spark plug wires and had a great running Corvair.
My point is that one should understand the vehicle one is going to repair whether it is a hybrid Prius or a Chevrolet Corvair. If I was in the OPâs position, I would pay a technician who knows and has worked on Prius cars to give me an evaluation.
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The OP isnât taking his/her car to the dealership or even a franchised shop from the sound of things. Furthermore, the car is around 9 years old IIRC, and apparently has been run low on oil chronically.
Maintaining a car or truck is #1, if you cannot add oil when needed or change the oil that is a big issue. Even electric vehicle will have to be serviced on time. Their are older cars and trucks which are well serviced and run great! I hope people can get something from these conversations, most people are not looking for everyday decisions advice, but a specific issue where someone with more experience can help.
Over the course of this discussion, Iâve just had a couple thoughts. I did not realize the financial condition of the OP. First though the OP has $4000 in cash and no credit. I would suggest keeping the cash in your pocket and donât show it to the shop. Then maybe pull out $1000 in cash and offer it as a settlement since they did not fix the problem. Of course it is unclear what exactly transpired with this car and the shop might have been questioning each additional move along the line. The last thing I would do is offer up the only cash I had for a car not fixed.
Yeah a lot of us have been broke at one time or another, but DIY is one way to cope with being broke and still continuing on. If you canât DIY, then you have to get yourself in a position to be able to pay someone else for everything. You canât be both broke and not able to help yourself with repairs.
My banker used to say that they consider income and character in providing credit, but character was more important. Even if a guy was short of money but long on character, somehow the bank would get paid. I havenât always had a lot of money but everyone got paid and Iâve always had more credit than I could handle. In frustration once at a dire circumstance, I asked my seemingly privileged friend what he would do to dig out? He said I wouldnât have gotten myself into that in the first place. So time to assess and decide which way to go in the future but donât throw all the cards away at once.
Thanks for sharing but I really think this forum is best when you have something to do with the vehicle that needs repairs or not! I want to stay away from personal problems. But it sometime comes out for example I meet a guy who posted videos of his new rig a 350K Diesel Pusher RV,
but the guy knew nothing about it or the maintenance required he did however take the rig to the factory for service. He would get there early like 5-6 AM and wait for them to open. Then once in he would wait in the waiting room for hours and hope the costs would not be too much. If he got off with 4K he was happy anything more he was upset but still paid. He had a problem where it was just a simple solution replacing a breather hose, he already did the diagnosis and the shop confirmed the same hose but he did not have the confidence to replace the hose himself? So, he had the shop do it for $250.00. I told him he could have saved that money but he became very upset with me because he thought I was calling him lazy. Which I was not so he banned me from his site?
Ah, unemployment benefits to people who lost their jobs because of the pandemic is the reason car prices have risen (other than shortage of chips). Glad you informed us of that. Thinking like that is how people run up $4000 bills for not getting their cars repaired.
The mechanic would surely not let the car be towed away.
This was already discussed, it was suggested paying with credit card and reversing the charges, then it was understood no credit cards no credit? Ok! then do you say the crooked mechanic is the GOD here? Not for me, I can find a tow vehicle willing to. Itâs your vehicle, it does not belong to the mechanic. Repossession towers specialized in getting vehicles from very strange places. Now you will need to go to court at some time. That is what I was saying. The whole reason is to expose the crooked mechanic fixing the vehicle to bankrupt the owner! Most good shops would not take the vehicle in until he paid the outstanding bill first! I am not sure this is appropriate for this forum. I prefer just responding to simple fixes on repair, not Lifestyles which this has become.
Sounds like a good way to cause legal troubles for the owner of the vehicle . And as for the mechanic until his side of this story is known everything is speculation as to his honesty .
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@Laisseraller. Can you find a towing company that can tow through locked doors? Or vehicles with wheels? Or vehicles chained to buildings? Or one who can explain laws to you? (Someone should.)
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@Remazz You have taken this out of content here! I am not a low breaker here! We where talking about a vehicle owner wanting to get his vehicle back from the shop. Most shops will kindly return your vehicle. But this post is gone way out of bounds here I refuse to talk any more about something that not directly related here to the original post!